Case Number 27530: Small Claims Court

Bastards (Les Salauds)

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All Rise...

Call Judge P.S. Colbert a "bastard," and his biological father will kick your butt.

The Charge

"But for me, cinema is not made to give a psychological explanation, for
me cinema is montage, is editing."—Director Claire Denis

The Case

Bastards opens on a dark, Parisian night sky with a torrential rain
down pouring. A spare, haunting keyboard line conjures moods of despair and
resignation—perfectly fitting for the suicide that sets the film's events
into motion.

Just as the pinhole prick made by a pebble cracking a windshield almost
certainly results in a virtual spider-webbing of stress fractures, the act of
taking one's own life to end one's own misery almost inevitably results in
causing incalculable pain to a network of survivors.

Screenwriters Denis and Jean-Pol Fargeau (Trouble Every Day) use the desperate
final leap of husband, father, and failing businessman Jacques (Laurent
Grévill, I Can't Sleep), as the
jumping off point for establishing the narratives of his relatives, friends and
associates, all of which intertwine.

His widow Sandra (Julie Bataille, Paris, Je T'Aime) is
understandably shattered, and threatening suicide. What's more, she's filled
with rage and accusation. In the film's most powerful scene, She blames the
death of her husband and the sexual abuse of her estranged teenage daughter
Justine (Lola Crèton) on a wealthy business man named Edouard Laporte
(Michel Subor, White Material),
and the police for not arresting him on those charges.

Marco (Vincent Lindon, Augustine)
gives up his sea-faring life to care his aggrieved sister and his ravaged niece.
Though he suspects the charges against Laporte may have been exaggerated, he
nonetheless begins studying him in a manner that suggests obsession. Is it a
coincidence that the Paris apartment he takes is one floor above the one where
Laporte's ex-wife Raphaëlle now resides? Is their smoldering relationship
about sexual hunger, budding affection, or is Marco manipulating her in order to
gain information about Edouard?

Questions about the characters' inner motivation and outward behaviors are
inspired by almost every scene, which gets Bastards off to a running
start: How, where, and when will these narrative tendrils connect?

But the build-up can only take a film so far and ultimately it's time to
either poop or get off the pot, sweet as you please. Perhaps it's not
surprising—given Denis' reputation as a filmmaker of contradictions and
extremes—that she opts to compromise, by effectively smearing fecal paste
all over the pot and then leaving the mess for someone else to clean up. From
this point on, Bastards chooses to take the sleazy way out-while leaving
most of the key questions unanswered—by descending into an ever more
disturbing series of images—a pageantry of perversions, if you will.

Just so we're clear, this includes a tour of a (literal) sex farm, complete
with a (heavily stained) staging area, and littered with bloody corn cobs, which
mostly likely correspond with the stark image of a dazed young woman wandering
the streets at night, covered only by high-heeled shoes and the blood flowing
from her vagina. There's more, but if you're interested, you'll have to see this
for yourself. As for me, I'll be happy to forget the whole sordid business as
soon as possible!

For better or worse, MPI offers a solid 1.85:1 Widescreen transfer that
clearly presents the amazing cinematography of longtime Denis collaborator
Agnès Godard in all its beauty (and deliberate ugliness), just as the Dolby
Digital 5.1 sound makes the most of the French dialogue (with optional English
subtitles) and a triumphant score by British indie band The Tindersticks. The
set's lone extra is a trailer for the main feature.

Make no mistake: Claire Denis is no less than one of contemporary cinema's
leading lights; a masterful storyteller who thrives with risky and uncomfortable
material. Bastards features a strong cast and a brilliantly provocative
first act, which makes it doubly frustrating when the plot is lost. My guess is
that Denis realized too late she bit off more than she could chew and spat it
out before asphyxiating.